9 month check up and other news

Alexandra had her nine month check up today. She weighed in at 18 lbs 4.5 oz and is 28.5 inches long.

And although we think she's tiny (compared to Austin at the same age as well as compared to two other babies her age we know), she actually sits in the 50th percentile for weight and the 75th percentile for height.

But she is half an inch short of being too big for the infant carrier car seat. So, I guess that means that we'll very soon (maybe this weekend?) have to switch her to a rear-facing installed car seat (because she's still two pounds shy of being able to sit forward-facing).

In other news, Alex is crawling all over the house now, pulling herself up on anything she can and getting into everything she can -- especially if it's something that Austin has. Austin is the centre of her universe right now and she absolutely loves being around him and playing with whatever he's playing with. Most of the time, this works out fine as Austin loves playing with her and wants her to be involved in almost everything he's doing. Almost everything. One minute he's telling me he wants to play with Alex and the next minute he's yelling at her to stop grabbing his train set or his car.

This video of Austin pulling Alex on the sled was his idea, not mine. Sorry the quality's not great, I didn't know there were two types of video settings on our camera. But I thought it was cute, so I've posted it anyway.

Austin is now home with me full time until the end of my maternity leave (on April 27) and so far we are having a lot of fun. I've once again signed him up for swimming lessons -- which he loves. We spend the rest of the days of the week going to play groups, meeting friends, running errands or staying in and having dance-a-thons in his bedrooom. In all, it's going well and I'm enjoying my time with the two kids. And, touch wood, I've even managed to get them to both nap at the same time, for at least part of the nap, every afternoon.

The above picture was taken on my birthday. Since it was on a weekday, we just did a nice dinner at home as a family -- which was really nice. Funny how, as you get older, you just want to spend your birthday with the people closest to you. All day, Austin was super excited that it was my birthday, because, as he kept reminding me, he would get to eat cake! (As for having a non-kid evening, Ryan did take me out on the Saturday night to the Keg and a movie, so in all it was a very nice birthday.)

We're still working on the potty training with Austin and he's doing very well. Since the holidays ended, he now only wears a diaper to sleep and if we're going out.

Finally, here's a fun video of Austin taken in October that I found on our old camera. It was taken right before the camera died and was forgotten about until recently. Over the summer, my sister-in-laws taught him how to do the Chicken Dance.